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Hello Cinephiles,
Today we’re talking about the 1989 movie Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, the 1991 movie Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey, and the 2020 movie Bill & Ted Face the Music.
Story
Excellent Adventure
This story is dated in so many ways but still manages to be fantastic at the end. I’m torn between the poor pacing, homophobia, and sexism; and the fantastic message of love and peace.
Score: 0.5
Bogus Journey
The same message resounds through the second movie as in the first, but again there’s more sexism, homophobia, and transphobia to make things awkward. Again the ending is fantastic.
Score: 0.5
Face the Music
The same message of unity and love are sown throughout this movie like the others but with a little more maturity. The twist is predictable but getting there wasn’t. There was none of the previous movies’ sexism, homophobia, or transphobia, but there was a little bit of an awkward fat joke. (nothing compared to Avengers Endgame)
Score: 0.5
Characters
Excellent Adventure
Bill and Ted are well meaning, mostly kind, but so foolish. They have fantastic vocabularies but they really don’t seem to follow everything going on. They are the personification of the slacker. There was an extremely homophobic joke that was out of character and pretty jarring.
The rest of the characters are a wonderful mix of what-if historical characters showed up in 1988.
Unfortunately the women are all pretty useless.
Score: 0.5
Bogus Journey
Once again we get Bill and Ted as sweet, mostly, caring, and pretty fools. They graduated high school and got jobs at the mall.
The evil people are all very much evil and totalitarian. It’s an interesting switch to see the rebels be the ones who want to be controlled.
Score: 0.5
Face the Music
This is the saddest and the most relatable version of Bill and Ted. They are broken by the weight of their own destiny but still trying anyway.
The introduction of the daughters was great. They are the generation that grew up with music-obsessed slackers. They were both believable and perfect. Both actors managed to mimic the original Bill and Ted’s movements and mannerisms better than the original actors did.
I’m happy they gave the princesses both more story and more screen time.
Score: 1
Dialogue
Excellent Adventure
The dialogue is actually impressively clever. They bypass time travel confusion really well and do really well with making their characters sound unique. It’s endlessly quotable in the way only 80’s movies can be.
Score: 0.5
Bogus Journey
Station! The dialogue doesn’t seem quite as special the second time, but there are some fantastic lines. The time travel battle at the end and speech is fantastic.
Score: 0.5
Face the Music
It’s hard to judge the dialogue of this one compared to the others. It’s a lot of self-referential jokes and quips but there’s some interesting bit in there too. I like the consistency in speech patterns and then impressive impersonations of famous musicians.
Score: 0.5
Visuals and Music
Excellent Adventure
The production value on this was fantastic, making each time period look authentic (in an 80’s high school curriculum sort of way).
The music was perfect for the movie and really enjoyable.
Score: 1
Bogus Journey
The nature of them going to hell and heaven make so that everything in this movie is more stylized and a little darker.
The music was okay but not excellent.
Score: 0.5
Face the Music
The special effects were updated and beautiful, the makeup work was fantastic, and everything worked towards the story. The locations were authentic and the shots were well thought out.
The nature of the final twist means that the music is less important than the message, but despite that there’s some fantastic pieces. Especially between the historical figures.
Score: 1
Fun
Excellent Adventure
Despite a little cringe and a few really awkward moments the movie is pure fun.
Score: 1
Bogus Journey
There’s some cringe and a few parts that I think drag but overall the movie is a lot of fun.
Score: 1
Face the Music
For both nostalgic reasons and because it was well written with little to no cringe, this was a lot of fun. It kept the entire family entertained and watching.
Score: 1
Overall
Excellent Adventure
The movie is dated but still really heartwarming. They really want to push the love and peace message and like Bill and Ted themselves they stumble a few times along the way.
Final Score: 3.5 Stars out of 5
Bogus Journey
Like the first movie, it is dated but overall positive. It manages to capture the optimism of the first despite the darker tone.
Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5
Face the Music
The movie manages to pay homage to the first two while surpassing them in fun and quality. Definitely my favourite of the series.
Final Score: 4 Stars out of 5